1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to carbonated beverages. More particularly, it relates to consumer or "at home" preparation of carbonated beverages having substantially the same palatability and effervescense of bottled or canned carbonated beverages. This invention especially relates to the preparation of carbonated beverages from carbonated ice.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Attempts to commercialize point of consumption or at home preparation of carbonated beverages have not met with any lasting success over the years. The principal shortcoming of the several techniques has been that the consumer-prepared carbonated beverage has been significantly inferior in one or more aspects to the bottled or canned carbonated beverages available in stores and supermarkets. The most common complaints leveled at the carbonated beverage prepared by the consumer is that the quality and the quantity of the carbonation, the bubble size and the duration of the effervescence does not compare favorably with the commercially-available bottled carbonated beverage.
On the other hand, there are significant advantages to consumer preparation of carbonated beverages vis-a-vis packaged liquid carbonated beverages. Thus, the use of glass, metal or other bulky containers is avoided, the necessity of bottling, shipping and storing carbonated beverages consisting of a major percentage of water is eliminated and the utility in terms of portability by the user is greatly enhanced. Further, disposable and returnable cans and bottles would no loner be of major concern to environmentalists who have been seeking ways to conserve both the country's natural resources and natural beauty.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,073,273 to Wetstein discloses a means to prepare a carbonated beverage wherein water plus sweetener and a flavor is placed in a small pressure vessel and a metal cartridge containing carbon dioxide is inserted into the sealed vessel where movement of the cartridge causes a piercing of the cartridge thereby injecting the carbon dioxide into the water to form the carbonted beverage. The carbon dioxide also pressurizes the vapor space above the liquid causing the carbonated beverage to pass out of the vessel through a serving nozzle when an external valve is opened. This device met with some measure of success in preparing unflavored and unsweetened carbonated water for home use.
The prior art includes a significant number of dry compositions for use in preparing carbonated beverages at home. In most of these a source of carbonate and acid, known in the art as a chemical "couple", are combined with sweeteners and a source of flavor so that upon addition of the composition to a glass of water, the "couple" reacts to yield carbon dioxide and at least some measure of carbonation to the beverage. U.S. Pat. No. 2,603,569 to Alther discloses the carbonation of a citric acid-sucrose complex with a sodium bicarbonate-sucrose complex. U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,363 to Hughes claims a combination of an alkali metal bicarbonate and a sulfonic acid ion exchange resin in its hydrogen form. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,851,359 and 2,953,459 to Diller a highly soluble phosphate and a slowly soluble phosphate are combined with an alkali metal or ammonium carbonate or bicarbonate to prolong the ebullition of the beverage. U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,977 to Mitchell et al. discloses chemical carbonation with citric, adipic or tartaric acid in finely divided form and which is said to approximate the carbonation sensation of cola-type beverages sold in air-tight bottles or cans which are produced by a saturated solution containing several volumes of carbon dioxide. U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,417 to Feldman et al. discloses a dry beverage composition adapted to be reconstituted with water to an effervescent beverage which includes an essential carbonating ingredient, an organic compound having a carbonic acid anhydride group, capable of controlled hydrolysis in water to release carbon dioxide at a substantially uniform rate. U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,962 to Fritzberg et al. discloses a carbonation composition utilizing two distinct bodies formed from an aqueous solution of a saccharide; one contains an edible food acid and the other an edible bicarbonate. Upon addition to water the two tablets dissolve quickly and react to evolve carbon dioxide.
Many of the dry powder chemical couples have a common and acknowledged defect, an unpleasant taste in the beverage directly resulting from the components of the powder. U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,363 to Hughes and U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,520 to Hovey addressed this problem by placing the chemicals in a container which is pervious to gas and water but impervious to solid reactants and by-products. U.S. Pat. No. 2,975,603 to Barnes et al. takes another approach by utilizing carbonated ice containing at least 25 milliliters of carbon dioxide per gram of ice as the source of carbonation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,888,998 to Sampson et al., 3,992,493 and 4,025,655 to Whyte et al. and 4,007,134, 4,110,255 and 4,147,808 to Liepa et al. disclose carbonation methods, compositions and devices whereby carbon dioxide containing molecular sieves are used to carbonate aqueous solutions.
Despite the many attempts to develop a means or system to prepare carbonated beverages in the home, none have succeeded in producing a carbonated product equal in all respects to the flavor, taste and appearance, as well as the quality and quantity of carbonation, of the commercially packaged, liquid carbonated beverages available in consumer-oriented stores and supermarkets.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a simple efficient process for point of consumption preparation of carbonated beverages having carbonation quality and quantity, as well as flavor, taste and appearance, equal to that of commercially available packaged liquid carbonated beverages.